Questionmark Perception 3 Meets the Test
Final exams. Placement tests. Quizzes. Surveys.
Certification exams. Students and instructors are surrounded by tests and
assessments. Building a test is a tedious process, but user-friendly
test-building software can alleviate some of that tedium.
One of the most
popular test-building tools on the market is Questionmark's Perception, now
available with enhanced features in Version 3 of its Microsoft Corp. Windows and
Web-based products. Questionmark has customers in more than 50 countries, with
hundreds of North American higher education clients.
Both the Windows and Web
modules are the same at their core. The Windows module is appropriate for
creating, delivering, and reporting tests and assessments on the Windows PC
platform. Perception for Web, the company’s best-selling product, is for
administering them using an intranet or the Internet.
New Perception for
Windows Version 3 upgrades the PC-based product with similar enhancements to
Version 3 of the Web product, released in fall 2001. In both cases, wizards
facilitate authoring questions and storing them within the question/assessment
database. The wizards take care of formatting—there is no need to learn HTML.
There are new question types, including drag and drop, matching, Likert scale
questions, ranking, true/false, yes/no, and select-a-blank questions. Both
products offer wizards that use Macromedia Flash questions incorporating dynamic
stimuli.
Users assemble questions into tests, surveys, quizzes, or exams
using the Windows- or Web-based Assessment Manager. Users can randomize the
questions or not, depending on preference. Meta-tags allow users to identify and
select questions according to their level of difficulty or other distinguishing
features. Once the user has created the meta-tags, he or she can sort and build
test banks according to these criteria. Users can import assessment items using
ASCII, and export or import them with Qpacks (encrypted and compressed files
used in prepackaged bundle situations) or IMS QTI (XML).
Questionmark is
actively involved with the IMS Global Learning Consortium. Perception complies
with AICC standards and the Sharable Content Object Reference Model initiative
(SCORM) and is compatible with many learning management systems.
With
Perception for Web, students access the tests or surveys with any standard
browser by typing in a user name and password. If they choose, instructors can
deliver the tests via the Perception Secure Brower to limit printing,
navigating, and saving of the test materials to disk.
Users of the
browser-based product also have the option to administer scheduled assessments,
limiting the time window for taking the test or quiz. Instructors specify look,
feel, and delivery date. Perception also offers the option of instant feedback
and scoring. This feedback might include scores, graphics, multimedia, sound,
video, links to assessments, and hyperlinks to useful resources. Users can set a
prerequisite score and specify what will happen if students achieve or fall
below the score. Instructors can provide prescriptive feedback tied to the
score.
A nice feature of both products is Perception's topic-based scoring,
which enables administrators to pinpoint student performance on specific
sub-topics. Topic score outcomes can also be shared with other students,
displayed in statistical reports, and passed to other applications. With the Web
product, links take students directly to help on that topic.
Perception
provides a variety of report form options for the instructor. The browser-based
product offers nine report styles, including coaching, survey, grade book, gap,
item analysis, and assessment overview. The Windows-based product provides five
styles.
Other features include assessment monitoring, time limit management,
MathML support, comment boxes, question-by-question delivery, and improved
reporting and analysis. The Web product promises more versatile security
settings, easier server configuration, e-mail broadcast capability, easier
analysis in spreadsheet or statistics programs, and a new browser-based
Enterprise Manager that combines all administrator functions within one user
interface.
Questionmark Learning Café, available on the company’s Web site,
offers tutorials, PowerPoint slides, and other materials to help both users and
non-users develop and employ exams and writing assessments.
There is also a presentation about
industry standards relating to assessments. Shockwave tutorials take
participants through the various stages of writing, authoring, deploying, and
reporting on Perception quizzes, tests, and surveys. The company also offers
free one-hour Web seminars to anyone who wants an introduction to using
computerized assessments.
Recently Questionmark announced a new
partnership with Blackboard.com that provides interoperability between
Perception and Blackboard's Building Blocks. Contact: Questionmark,
Stamford, CT; (203) 425-2400; www.questionmark.com.